Susannah Porter

Contact Phone:

Office Location:

Specialization:

Precambrian and Cambrian Paleobiology, Early Eukaryote and Early Animal Evolution, the Evolution of Biomineralization.

Education:

Harvard University, Ph.D. Biology, 2002

Yale University, B.A. Mathematics, 1995, magna cum laude

Research:

The early evolution and radiation of eukaryotes and its relationship to environmental change, and the fossil record of the earliest skeletal animals. Research involves fieldwork, microscopy, descriptive systematics, and paleoecological and taphonomic analyses.

Courses:

Earth 2: Physical geology

Introduction to the science of the Earth; properties and processes of its surface and interior, including plate tectonics, volcanism, earthquakes, glaciation, mountain building, formation of rocks, minerals, and the structural basis of landforms.

Earth 7: Age of Dinosaurs

The origin and diversification of dinosaurs, and the evolutionary relationship of dinosaurs (including their living descendents) to other major groups of vertebrates. Broad introduction including discussion of dinosaur ecology, anatomy, extinction, and paleogeography.

The ecologic structure and evolution of the biosphere as illustrated by the fossil record.

Earth 143: The Early Evolution of Life and its Environmental Context

The first 3.5 billion years of life and the environmental context in which it evolved. Highly multidisciplinary, drawing on evidence from geology, geochemistry, paleontology, and comparative biology.

Earth 144: Invertebrate Paleontology

Important topics in paleobiology are discussed in the context of the evolutionary history of invertebrate animal life. These include macroevolutionary theory, diversification and extinction events, ecological and geobiological interactions through time, and the incompleteness of the fossil record.

Earth 270: Paleoclub Seminar

Selected topics in paleobiology. Past seminar topics include: the Cambrian explosion, the history of paleontology, the rise of oxygen, Tree-thinking, snowball Earth, eukaryote diversity, the writings of Stephen Jay Gould, and the evolution of development.